Janet opened her eyes, as daylight broke out. Her eyes watered as she tried to open her eyes, she was suffering from deprivation of sleep. Every night something would happen and she would have to waste a few hours of her sleep.

She turned around to find the place beside her in the bed to be empty. Avery must have woken up.

"Hey..." Janet said, getting up when she saw Avery hurrying past the bed to put her phone on charging.

"Hey!" Avery chirped. The familiar tone had come back and Janet sighed of relief, her mind relaxed. Everything was fine.

"Are you okay?" Janet asked getting out of bed and finding her slippers.

"Yes... I think so." Avery replied sitting on the bed.

"Hey, Avery... if you ever need to talk about it-"

"I'm not ready, Janet. I don't know if I ever will be."

"That's okay. Just know, I'm here for you."

"I know..."

For the first time in her life, she hugged Avery, feeling the warmth and comfort as she got the reflection of the same inside Avery also.

Janet decided to take a peek inside Mrs. Dubois's room to ensure Anissa was alright.

"Mrs. Dubois..." Janet called.

"Good morning, Janet. Come." Mrs. Dubois said sweetly.

How come the woman was not tired? How come was she always this cheerful and welcoming? Janet swore she had never seen any other woman as sweet and comforting as hers as she fully trusted the idea of Mrs. Dubois happening to be the best thing in Anissa's life, getting a mother like Mrs. Dubois, even if a stepmother, was like being the dearest child of God.

Mrs. Dubois was truly a beauty, her age had masked her splendour but still, that brown straight hair, magnificent blue eyes, and dazzling smile could bring anyone down to their knees. The tight blue dress wrapped around her petite body and Janet nearly slapped herself for gawking at her since she had come. Tearing her gaze, when she looked at Mrs. Dubois, Janet felt as if she had seen a slight smirk on Mrs. Dubois' face; her heart fluttered. She blushed red.

"How is Anissa?" Janet asked softly.

"She is fine now, sweetheart."

"Both of your children drink too much." Janet blurted out.

Mrs. Dubois' eyes widened in shock, and then she looked down and exhaled the breath she'd been holding.

"Why am I astonished? This is not something new." Mrs. Dubois mumbled to herself, "How did you know?"

Janet looked at her wristwatch and found she was running late for practice so she gave an apologetic smile to Mrs. Dubois for not having the time to stay long.

"I'll be needing glucose later, Mrs. Dubois." Janet said as she walked out, she heard a small chuckle behind her which made herself smile...

After the practice she had sat down on a secluded bench outside the court, the last time she was out of Rieomb was when Anissa took her to the café. Janet enjoyed the feeling of sitting alone, feeling the gentle breeze against her skin, and opened her mobile. She started going through the previous chats and came across a chat that she had with her mom 2 weeks back.

'I'll call you soon!' 9:30 PM

But she hadn't had the time to call her back or send her any messages. Her heartbeat went up as she dialled her mom's number.

"Hello, mom?"

"So, that's your definition of 'soon'?" Her mother's voice boomed from the other side.

"I'm so sorry mom, trust me, I didn't have any time to call you back."

"Not even a single minute, in these 2 weeks?"

'How would you know what happened in these two weeks, Mom?' Janet thought.

"Trust me, mom..."

"Cut it out, Jane. Just say you forgot."

Janet felt a homely sensation engulfing her as she found comfort in her mother's words, be it scolding. Suddenly, she wanted to get out of Paris as soon as possible and jump into her mother's arms, it's been too long.

"Nora... don't scold her!" Her father's voice boomed, Janet imagined him saying this to her while doing the dishes and her mom sitting on a couch with the laptop, writing journals. That's the usual picture her mind had captured many times.

"Hey, lil' champ! How's it goin'?"

"Hey Dad, it's going fine. I've gotten better, you know, Uncle Edwin will be proud of me." And it suddenly dawned on her that she had not talked to Uncle Edwin for long. It was as if, she had disappeared in those two weeks finding salvation.

"Did you talk with him?" Her dad asked.

"Nope. Gonna call him soon. Bye Dad, say bye to Mom."

She quickly typed Uncle Edwin's number and dialled.

"Hey, Jane! Where were you!? I was literally worried sick! Was deciding to go to Cheveroux today!"

"Hiya Uncle! Calm down. I'm fine. I just didn't have time to call you, but I'm alright. How's everything going at home?"

"It's going good, Maria does the chores pretty well."

Maria. It suddenly struck her. She had forgotten about her a long time ago. The familiar fear crept up her spine.

"Uncle Edwin, do you know her full name?" Janet asked.

"No. Maria. That's it."

"Oh."

"Why?"

"No just wondering, why didn't you hire her after checking her ID?"

"Good question, but nothing has been stolen so far, so I didn't think much about it."

"It's not about stealing. It's just... she just seems... different."

"Don't think much about it, you know I have protection."

"Yeah, I know... by the way, Uncle Edwin, the coach sir is proud of me, he praises me every day and, says I'll definitely make it to the semi-finals."

"Oh? I thought he was some piece of shit? Stay away from him."

"Aww jealous already?"

"Nope, just warning you." His tone was serious.

"Haha, I will. Bye."

"Bye, Jane."

Janet kept her mobile aside, and after so many days, she felt better, talking to her family members and Uncle Edwin. But it suddenly hit her; she had never told her Uncle anything about the coach sir.

Janet went through social media with the hope of finding something about Maria. When she searched for Maria on Instagram, thousands of 'Maria' accounts popped on her screen but none of them was the one staying at Uncle Edwin's.

'@Mariatigress202 @MiamiMaria @Maria_in_hell...' What the hell?

"Hey!"

Janet jumped up in fright, "AAH!"

"Oh, calm down girl, I thought you don't check social media?" Avery laughed.

"I don't. I'm just looking for someone." Janet replied rolling her eyes.

"Give me your account's name and I'll follow you. You know I have 2.3k followers there." Avery sounded excited and Janet huffed in annoyance. She only had 115 followers there which she considered enough.

"Avery I'm going through something important." Janet said, her eyes glued to the screen.

Avery pulled a chair and sat beside Janet.

"Do you need my help?"

"Yes, please."

"What are you searching for?"

"Actually the thing is that... my Uncle has hired a maidservant for doing the chores, not much but for the little things to take care of. Her name is Maria. And he didn't even check her ID before letting her in, I always feel something's off when I talk to her. Is it possible to track her social media?"

"Hmm." Avery thought hard, "It will be difficult since we don't even know if her real name's Maria."

"That's true. But let's try."

Even after scrolling for almost half an hour, their efforts to find Maria were in vain.

"We will find this later on, Janet. Do you want to see the Rieomb court's account? Here..." Avery opened it but Janet had lost all the interest. She felt disappointed, after doing all this. Why do people say social media is the best to track or locate someone? This is total shit. Janet thought.

"Come on! Look at it." Avery pulled her hand.

Avery scrolled all the pictures and histories of Rieomb court and blabbered continuously, this was this, that was that and so on, Janet sat there with a boring expression thinking about something else. Suddenly her eyes caught something as Avery scrolled fast past it.

"Stop Avery!" Janet nearly screamed.

"Gosh, you scared me there. What happened?"

"Go up."

"Okay..." Avery scrolled up.

"Up, more."

Avery scrolled up.

"Where Janet?"

"I swear I saw someone... scroll up please."

Avery scrolled up, up...

"Stop." Janet finally said.

'Condolences to the family of excellent player, #RieombCourt, we are very sad to say that an excellent badminton player...'

Janet did not pay any attention to what was written and went straight for the pictures attached below.

"This..." Janet pointed out at a lady. There were all uniformed officers surrounding a coffin and a uniformed woman cop stood there, her head hung low, in the corner. Even if the picture was hazy and not clear, Janet swore she was no one but Maria. Her blond hair was cut short and she was a little chubby compared to now. Janet trembled. Police?

"Who is she?" Janet asked.

"She... I don't quite remember. But you didn't hear the incident that happened here 5 years ago?"

"No." Janet replied confused.

"Well umm..." Avery pushed back her chair and looked out of the window. She pondered. "Ah! I remember; she is Miranda... Miranda Mckay."

"Oh!" Janet gasped.

"Why? Is she the one staying at your Uncle's?" Avery asked.

"Yep, I think so." Janet replied.

"I don't understand. Is he under any kind of protection? Is he alright?"

"I don't know Avery. I really don't know. I'm not getting anything."

"Okay, let's relax and then call back your Uncle and try to get some information about it?"

"I'll try." Janet replied, her eyes focussed on the clear blue sky.

Janet read the full article on Twitter, stating the death of an excellent player, but the name remained anonymous. Something like death happened here, but there's no information about it? Janet felt frustrated. She saw two or three comments sending blessings and condolences to the family but that's it. Rieomb court was famous, and a hyped-up place for competitors around the world, but something like death was not even known, it felt as if someone deliberately suppressed the media and people about it. Or maybe not, the parents might have requested to not spread the news. But why? She searched about it and multiple sites stated that she had died by committing suicide. Then Janet typed Miranda Mckay on the search bar and entered. One or two sites showed some documentaries and Janet went to each of those. Opening the video she recognised Maria in each of the videos talking about the incident and guilt was evident in her eyes when she mentioned, 'The matter is closed because there is not enough evidence.' But in every video when she spoke the victim's name the audio was either cut or muted.

"Why? Why? Just why?!" She cried out in disappointment. But she consoled herself. She was sure that she'd get something... anything, to know what happened 5 years ago, here.

"Hey, Avery..." Janet slowly called.

"Hmm?"

"What happened here 5 years, ago?"

"I don't know much about it, because the case was not clarified by the police. But there was, you know, an excellent player, a badminton player to be specific. She had won... uh... I think, 3 gold medals?"

"3 gold medals!?" Janet gasped.

"Yup. She came here when she was 12, I guess, and won a bronze. And the gold medal winner was Arthur that time."

Janet's heart clenched with an unknown feeling. She ignored it and told Avery to continue.

"Girl, I don't know much about it." Avery said laughing.

"Still, you know more about it than me." Janet's voice was flat.

"Then, she continued playing here. 3 years. 3 gold medals. But the next time, she became ill during the game and was sent to a hospital where she died after 2 days. She was found in the hospital bed with her wrist cut with a suicide note."

"Hell, no way that's a suicide." Janet alleged.

"Maybe or may not be. That's what is not clear. But she was an excellent player, ya know?"

Janet took a deep breath. Had she not died, she would have become famous by now. But why did she have to attempt suicide? There must be some reason behind it, she felt her case was something similar to Eloise Anderson's, but she didn't bother to mix those two up.

She searched 'suicide case of Rieomb court' and found many sites, clicking up on those she found exactly what Avery had just told her, and the articles felt as if copied and pasted on every site. Nothing new could be found. She went to each of the pages and with tiredness and anger went on close the window but that's when her finger accidentally swiped the last site.

There was a video attached to the article and Janet felt like she got the moon in her hands. When she went to open the video, she saw it was compulsory to 'sign up' first, without thinking much she typed her email ID, and gave the necessary OTP.

The video was of no one other than that girl, Janet concluded. Janet watched her, mesmerized, by the way of her moves, throws and serves. Looking at her Janet felt she was still a baby compared to this. The flawless moves and high jumps... Janet's heart clenched with a melancholic feeling. Had she lived now, Janet would have had the chance to meet her or even play with her, she felt an eternal attachment with her and, an unknown and unrequited regret filled her. A star. A prodigy. A Talent. A death. Just vanished, and was never going to come back.

That's when she heard in some of the audio of someone shouting, "Jump!"

Janet played the video a little bit earlier because she affirmed that she had heard a name before the audio was muted.

"-Jump!"

She again dragged the video backward and put the speaker of the phone near her ear,

"a..a JUMP!"

Frustrated, she tried again, put the video in slow motion, and heard it again, "v..a ju..mp..."

Hoarse, but that was the best, she couldn't go any further. Va? What was that? She was so close but so far. Then she thought, close to what?

Closing her phone, she started imagining her, her moves, her playing, and then at last unknowingly, an imagined picture of a dead body came into her view, she nearly screamed. Blinked, drank water, and closed her eyes but the picture didn't go.

After what felt like hours, the image morphed into a tattoo, of someone familiar, on the back of the neck. Very familiar. Something written 'est la' she knew what it meant - 'is here.'

Who is here?

Va.

Va.

Va.

Va est la. Her mind screamed again and again.

Then the tattoo came into her mind, clear and big.

Eva est la.

Eva is here.

As she thought she solved one of the big puzzles and went to sleep peacefully, someone on the other hand got hold of her email account. . .

Any thoughts? :)

Thanks for reading! ♡